Do you have an old site you are replacing with a new AgentFire site? You may want to consider the value of 301 redirects for affected URLs.
301 Redirects - What are they? And why are they crucial for preserving ranking?
Redirecting old links when you move a site to a new location ensures that anything currently indexed in search engines continues to lead visitors to the proper areas of your new website.
301's Explained:
301 Redirects tell search engines where your site content has moved, in the cases that a URL has changed. Effectively, the URL is "redirected" to the new location, preserving the link and the SEO.
Further Information and examples:
When you change to a new host (such as switching from your old host to AgentFire) what often happens is that the URL structure for each of those individual pages changes.
Example: your old domain URL: yourdomain.com/miami_page2930209.html
On your new AgentFire website, the URL structure would look something like:
yourdomain.com/our-areas/miami-homes/
If 301 redirects are not set when you make the switch, suddenly all of your pages will return 404 errors (which means that the pages cannot be reached, effectively a dead link - after some time Google will simply de-index that page).
Common questions about 301 redirects:
A very frequently asked question here - the answer is that you will not lose domain ranking so long as proper precautions are taken. This is an optional step to take that will ensure your old URLs are redirected to new ones on your replacement site.
Because this step is optional, it is not included in the standard setup fees. A quote is provided on request that will review the size and scope of your old site, and determine a price to redirect URLs.
It is highly recommended for clients migrating to the AgentFire platform to consider this option. Sites that rank well or have a long history can benefit significantly from this service.
Obtaining a quote for 301 redirections of your old site URLs:
We'll ask you questions about 301 redirects in our new client questionnaires (and frequently cover this topic in demos).
You may also request a quote at any time before going live by asking for one through our support@agentfire.com email.
The cost for this varies on how many pages we need to create redirects for - a typical site will normally cost around $100, however, sites with enormous amounts of content will have the cost adjusted accordingly. You can always provide an estimate before approval for the work to be done.
Note: You MUST have these 301 redirects in place before your old site is canceled and removed from the domain. If we lose access to the old link structure, we cannot create 301 redirects for them.
What if my domain name is also changing?
If your domain name is also changing to something new, please read this article for how to preserve ranking during a domain name change.